Cover Flat contest winner...

Actually, it's winners.

Unfortunately I need to hold off on posting who those winners are until next week, but I promise it will be worth the wait. Your patience is appreciated. {G}

Thanks, too, for all the support and good wishes re. my writing. It must be working because I'm scribbling away...and not taking one solid word for granted. So thank you.

And on the writing front...

So I'm tooling along in Zodiac-land, and I'm awed at the amount of material I have; and at the thoughts and hopes and 'maybes' I'm entertaining and interested in exploring throughout these remaining novels. I employ what I call the "kitchen-sink method" of writing: meaning save nothing, throw everything in there, especially your best ideas, because not only may you not get a chance to utilize them otherwise, but using them and yourself all the way up means there's room for more wonderful ideas to replace them. Ones that build on what came before. This is the same principle (phenomenon?) at work behind the 'writing begets writing' maxim. The more you do it, the more you can do.

Interesting, no?

Anyway, I think so...but I'd forgotten how sometimes a book is so chocked with ideas that not only do some of them get pushed to the last of the 400-500 pages, some get thrown into the next book. I'm seeing this happen now with book4 of the Zodiac series, and since I'm keeping a loose grip on my pen in this first draft, and observing what's going on mostly from my peripheral vision (The idea being to snea up on it so it doesn't spook and run) I can observe it dispassionately. If I need these ideas later, they'll be there. If not, I have faith that something better will come along to replace them. What's still mind-boggling, however, is that some of these shunted bits are things I'd thought would end up in the third book. Now it looks like book5 will be the earliest, though I'm certainly not going to hold my breath.

And the world just keeps on building...it's so awesome!

Talk soon,
Vicki